referencePathFrenet

Smooth reference path fit to waypoints

Description

The referencePathFrenet object fits a smooth, piecewise, continuous curve to a set of waypoints given as [x y] or [x y theta]. After fitting, points along the curve, the path points are expressed as [x y theta kappa dkappa s], where:

• x y and theta— SE(2) state expressed in global coordinates, with x and y in meters and theta in radians

• kappa — Curvature, or inverse of the radius, in meters

• dkappa — Derivative of curvature with respect to arc length in meters per second

• s — Arc length, or distance along path from path origin, in meters

Using this object, convert trajectories between global and Frenet coordinate systems, interpolate states along the path based on arc length, and query the closest point on a path from a global state.

The object expresses Frenet states as a vector of form [S dS ddS L dL ddL], where S is the arc length and L is the perpendicular deviation from the direction of the reference path. Derivatives of S are relative to time. Derivatives of L are relative to the arc length, S.

Creation

Syntax

refPathObj = referencePathFrenet(waypoints)

refPathObj = referencePathFrenet(waypoints,'DiscretizationDistance',discretionDist)

Description

refPathObj = referencePathFrenet(waypoints) fits a piecewise, continuous set of curves to the specified waypoints. The waypoints argument sets the Waypoints property.

refPathObj = referencePathFrenet(waypoints,'DiscretizationDistance',discretionDist) fits a piecewise, continuous set of curves to waypoints using the specified distance between interpolated path points. The discretionDist argument sets the DiscretizationDistance property.

Properties

Waypoints — Presampled points along path

P-by-2 numeric matrix | P-by-3 numeric matrix

Presampled points along the path, specified as a P-by-2 matrix with rows of form [x y] or P-by-3 matrix with rows of form [x y theta]. Specify x and y in meters and theta in radians. P is the number of presampled points, and must be greater than or equal to two.

Data Types: single | double

PathLength — Total arclength along the path

nonnegative scalar

This property is read-only.

Total arclength along the path in meters.

Data Types: single | double

SegmentParameters — Clothoid parameters at start of segments

N-by-6 matrix

This property is read-only.

Clothoid parameters at start of segments, specified as an N-by-6 matrix where N is the total number of waypoints. Each row contains the parameters of the clothoidal segment to connect to the next consecutive waypoint and is in the form [x y theta k dk s] where:

• x y and theta— SE(2) state expressed in global coordinates, with x and y in meters and theta in radians

• kappa — Curvature, or inverse of the radius, in meters

• dkappa — Derivative of curvature with respect to arc length in meters per second

• s — Arc length, or distance along path from path origin, in meters

Data Types: single | double

Name-Value Arguments

Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

Before R2021a, use commas to separate each name and value, and enclose Name in quotes.

Example: refPath = referencePathFrenet(waypoints,DiscretizationDistance=0.4)

DiscretizationDistance — Arc length between interpolated path points

0.05 (default) | positive scalar

This property is read-only.

Arc length between interpolated path points, specified as a positive scalar in meters. The object uses interpolated path points to accelerate performance of the transformation functions frenet2global and global2frenet. A smaller discretization distance can improve accuracy at the expense of memory and computational efficiency.

Example: refPath = referencePathFrenet(waypoints,DiscretizationDistance=0.4)

Data Types: single | double

MaxNumWaypoints — Maximum waypoints allowed in path

Inf (default) | positive integer

This property is read-only.

Maximum number of waypoints allowed in the path, specified as either Inf for resizeable path or a positive integer to enforce a static limit.

If MaxNumWaypoints is set to Inf, to generate code, DynamicMemoryAllocation must be set to 'on'.

Example: refPath = referencePathFrenet(waypoints,MaxNumWaypoints=10)

Data Types: single | double

Object Functions

closestPoint	Find closest point on reference path to global point
closestPointsToSequence	Projects sequence of points onto path
closestProjections	Find orthogonal projections between path tangent vector and query point
curvature	Return curvature at arclength
changeInCurvature	Return change-in-curvature at arclength
frenet2global	Convert Frenet states to global states
global2frenet	Convert global states to Frenet states
interpolate	Interpolate reference path at provided arc lengths
position	Return xy-position at arclength
tangentAngle	Return tangent angle at arclength
show	Display reference path in figure

Examples

Generate Alternative Trajectories for Reference Path

Generate alternative trajectories for a reference path using Frenet coordinates. Specify different initial and terminal states for your trajectories. Tune your states based on the generated trajectories.

Generate a reference path from a set of waypoints. Create a trajectoryGeneratorFrenet object from the reference path.

waypoints = [0 0; ...
	50 20; ...
	100 0; ...
	150 10];
refPath = referencePathFrenet(waypoints);
connector = trajectoryGeneratorFrenet(refPath);

Generate a five-second trajectory between the path origin and a point 30 m down the path as Frenet states.

initState = [0 0 0 0 0 0];  % [S ds ddS L dL ddL]
termState = [30 0 0 0 0 0]; % [S ds ddS L dL ddL]
[~,trajGlobal] = connect(connector,initState,termState,5);

Display the trajectory in global coordinates.

show(refPath);
hold on
axis equal
plot(trajGlobal.Trajectory(:,1),trajGlobal.Trajectory(:,2),'b')
legend(["Waypoints","Reference Path","Trajectory to 30m"])

Create a matrix of terminal states with lateral deviations between –3 m and 3 m. Generate trajectories that cover the same arc length in 10 seconds, but deviate laterally from the reference path. Display the new alternative paths.

termStateDeviated = termState + ([-3:3]' * [0 0 0 1 0 0]);
[~,trajGlobal] = connect(connector,initState,termStateDeviated,10);

clf
show(refPath);
hold on
axis equal
for i = 1:length(trajGlobal)
    plot(trajGlobal(i).Trajectory(:,1),trajGlobal(i).Trajectory(:,2),'g')
end
legend(["Waypoints","Reference Path","Alternative Trajectories"])
hold off

Specify a new terminal state to generate a new trajectory. This trajectory is not desirable because it requires reverse motion to achieve a lateral velocity of 10 m/s.

newTermState = [5 10 0 5 0 0];
[~,newTrajGlobal] = connect(connector,initState,newTermState,3);

clf
show(refPath);
hold on
axis equal
plot(newTrajGlobal.Trajectory(:,1),newTrajGlobal.Trajectory(:,2),'b');
legend(["Waypoint","Reference Path","New Trajectory"])
hold off

Relax the restriction on the longitudinal state by specifying an arc length of NaN. Generate and display the trajectory again. The new position shows a good alternative trajectory that deviates off the reference path.

relaxedTermState = [NaN 10 0 5 0 0];
[~,trajGlobalRelaxed] = connect(connector,initState,relaxedTermState,3);

clf
show(refPath);
hold on
axis equal
plot(trajGlobalRelaxed.Trajectory(:,1),trajGlobalRelaxed.Trajectory(:,2),'g');
hold off

Extended Capabilities

C/C++ Code Generation

Generate C and C++ code using MATLAB® Coder™.

Starting in MATLAB^® R2022a, default behavior for referencePathFrenet has changed which may result in backwards compatibility issues. referencePathFrenet now supports fixed-size code generation (DynamicMemoryAllocation="off"). To restore previous behavior, the MaxNumWaypoints property and DynamicMemoryAllocation must be set to Inf and 'on' respectively.

• If MaxNumWaypoints is specified, the returned path is variably-sized but the maximum size of the path is set is by the MaxNumWaypoints property, regardless of DynamicMemoryAllocation.

• If DynamicMemoryAllocation is set to 'on' and:

  • If waypoints are compile-time constant, then the returned path is fixed-size.

  • If waypoints are variably-sized, then the returned path is variably-sized and unbounded.

• If DynamicMemoryAllocation is set to 'on' and:

  • If waypoints are fixed-sized, then the returned path is fixed-size.

  • If waypoints are variably sized without specifying MaxNumWaypoints, then the path is invalid and causes an error.

Version History

Introduced in R2020b